ABSTRACT

R.K. Narayan's prolific literary career, which now spans seven decades, includes novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction. Since his entry onto the international literary stage in 1935, his books alone comprise 15 novels, 10 collections of stories, and I I works of nonfiction, including volumes of autobiography and collections of essays. He is without doubt one of India's bestknown writers and has received considerable recognition for his work both in and out of India. Narayan's work is characterized by a preference for pre modernist fictional techniques, and by the strong vein of comedy and irony that runs through the whole body of his writing. But the most remarkable aspect of his oeuvre is undoubtedly his creation of an India in microcosm in the imaginary town of Malgudi-which bears a striking resemblance to Narayan's hometown, the South Indian city of Mysore. Malgudi was introduced to the world in his first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), and has been developed through a succession of novels and stories spanning more than 60 years. His work has long been compared with that of various European writers, notably Anton Chekhov and Jane Austen, and, more recently, with a range of postcolonial writers including Chinua Achebe, Anita Desai, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, George Lamming, Salman Rushdie, Kurt Vonnegut, and Patrick White.